IFCI has increased its holding stake in factoring company Foremost Factors Limited (FFL) to 96.49%, after purchasing an additional stake of 46.65%.

The company said that it plans to buy the remaining stake of 3.5% from other shareholders to make the company a 100% subsidiary.

With a turnaround in its operations, IFCI now satisfies the applicable regulatory norms and has recently restarted its lending operations.

By making entry into the factoring services through FFL, IFCI would be capable of extending receivable financing in a big way to its customers by using its presence through its different regional as well as branch offices.

Foremost Factors was originally promoted by Mohan Puri, promoter of Mohan Exports and Nations Bank Overseas Corporation, USA, and Nations Banc Commercial Corporation (NCC), the third largest factoring company in USA. Subsequently, IFCI acquired 49.84 per cent stake in Foremost Factors.

FFL provides domestic and export factoring facilities and holds an authorised dealer licence to carry out international factoring business.

Shares of the company on Wednesday (May 21), gained 5.55% at Rs 64.7 on the Bombay stock Exchange (BSE). The total volume of shares traded at the BSE was 21,569,567.